Shadowing Practice: ENGLISH CONVERSATION 🇬🇧 with native speakers - Would you rather..?🤔 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Elephant English Podcast.
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In today's video, we're going to be doing the part two of Would You Rather questions with my mum.
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The first question is, would you rather live in the city or the countryside?
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I love the countryside.
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It's very relaxing and I love nature.
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It's much more relaxing than being in a city.
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I was recently in Manchester where there were a lot of people in the centre of the city
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and in the shops and it became very stressful.
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Have you ever lived in a city then?
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No I haven't lived in an actual city but I've lived in a large town which was okay.
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Yeah I live in a city at the minute and I think
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that it's a lot nicer when you come to the countryside
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because you feel that people aren't stressed all of the time
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when you're in a city and you see everybody on the underground
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or on the buses it feels like they're always rushing to go to work
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or just to get to different places but they always seem quite stressed yes
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and even when walking along the street to the shops
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if you want to go to a shop that's on the
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other side of the street it's very stressful to cross the road
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and it just seems very busy all of the time and people don't seem as relaxed as they are in the country.
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The next question is would you rather be too hot or too cold?
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I would rather be cold because you can always add layers of clothing
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or you can have a fire or heating in your house to become warm again
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but when you're too hot there's very little
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that you can do to cool yourself down yeah I prefer to be too cold as well
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but if you ask me this question in the winter I might say I prefer to be too hot
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because at the moment we can't really remember what being cold is
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yes that's true at the moment it's been very hot
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and I can't imagine even putting on a jumper or a coat
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so i think it depends what season you're in at the
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time for this question the next question is would you rather be able to talk with animals
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or speak all foreign languages i think i would rather be able to speak to animals
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because i like animals a lot and i think
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that it would be very interesting to find out their opinions
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of how they're living maybe they're happy in their life
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or maybe they're really unhappy i think with a dog though you can tell
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if they're happy or not and
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when the cat is meowing at you you kind of know
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what she's saying she's saying i'm hungry i'm hungry yes
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but what about a rabbit or a giraffe they don't say anything at all
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so it would be interesting to have their perspective on life
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the next question is would you rather eat a rat
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or a spider it would depend if it was cooked
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or raw if it was alive or dead it really depends on the condition of the creature
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even though I'm vegetarian I think I would choose to eat the rat
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if it was cooked well even though you're vegetarian a spider
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is meat as well it would be considered meat wouldn't it i suppose
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so i've never thought of a spider being meat yeah it's just horrible
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but a rat is definitely meat right okay the next question is would you rather have no water or no electricity?
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I think I'd rather have no electricity because you can live without electricity.
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It wouldn't be easy initially.
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I have lived one weekend without water coming from the taps and it was very difficult to do anything at all.
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But you don't need electricity to survive all the time you
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can use candles for light you can just eat sandwiches
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so it's not so crucial it's not as important as water yeah I agree I think
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when you haven't got water you can't really do anything you
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can't cook you can't wash the dishes you can't go to toilet yeah
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and you just feel dirty all the time even though you
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aren't you start thinking of the things you can't do
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because of the lack of water whereas
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if you haven't got electricity for a few hours you can soon find something to do.
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The final question is would you rather listen to noisy traffic or terrible music?
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I think I would rather listen to noisy traffic
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because you soon get used to the noise of of traffic yeah
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because you used to live near an airport didn't you
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and you soon get used to the planes going by
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and you don't really notice them yes there's the same with
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if you live near a motorway in the end it becomes background noise
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and the same with the airplanes we didn't notice the airplane noise whereas with music
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if you don't like that type of music it can be very annoying
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so in today's video we've done would you rather questions with
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my mum there will be a part three of these questions
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so please like this video if you've liked it and subscribe to my channel
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Thank you and see you in the next video.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “ENGLISH CONVERSATION 🇬🇧 with native speakers - Would you rather..?🤔”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: electricity, meat, lived, cold, hot. This video has 74 sentences and 908 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:01. The speaker talks at a natural 151 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| countryside noun | /ˈkʌn.tɹiˌsaɪd/ | An area located outside of towns and cities; an area that is not urban or suburban; a rural area. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| spider noun | /ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/ | Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| noisy adjective | /ˈnɔɪzi/ | Making a noise, especially a loud unpleasant sound |
| vegetarian noun | /vɛ.d͡ʒɪˈtɛ.ɹi.ən/ | A person who does not eat animal flesh, or, in some cases, use any animal products. |
| stressful adjective | /ˈstɹɛsfəl/ | Irritating; causing stress. |
| airplane noun | /ˈɛɹˌpleɪ̯n/ | A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings: a fixed-wing aircraft with at least one engine or electric motor. |
| giraffe noun | /d͡ʒəˈɹæf/ | A ruminant in the genus Giraffa of the African savannah with long legs, a highly elongated neck, yellow fur patterned with dark spots typically in the form of… |
| motorway noun | /ˈməʊtəweɪ/ | A highway with grade-separated crossings (rather than level crossings) and designed (and only permitted) for high-speed motor-traffic (in Europe motor vehicles… |
| jumper noun | /ˈd͡ʒʌmpɚ/ | A woollen sweater or pullover. |
| candle noun | /ˈkæn.dəl/ | A light source consisting of a wick embedded in a solid, flammable substance such as wax, tallow, or paraffin. |
| subscribe verb | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name). |
| rabbit noun | /ˈɹæbɪt/ | A mammal of most genera of the family Leporidae, with long ears, long hind legs and a short, fluffy tail. (Those of the larger kind are instead called hares) |
| unhappy adjective | /ʌnˈhæpi/ | Not happy; sad. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | Have you ever lived · haven't lived · it's been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was cooked · would be considered |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | they're always rushing · they're living · is meowing |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 39 contractions and reduced forms, such as can't, don't, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dish /dɪʃ/, crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like countryside, depend, spider.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.